Diet Coke?

jimshine

Switching to non-sweet drinks changed my pallet. I found I liked my food saltier to enhance the sweetness as well.

MsEndomorph

So I'm not sure if anyone has said this or not (if so, ignore me) but the main reason diet soda=fat is that you're brain can't tell the difference between artificial and natural sugars. When you consume something sweet, your body immediately jumps into compensation mode. Tastes like a sugar? Time to release insulin! But without the control mechanism of sugar actually rising and falling. So you get the side effects of sugar drinks along with all of the negatives of ingesting chemicals. Best to just leave it alone or splurge on a real sugar Coke everyone once in a while.

ninerbuff

I have not read other posts sorry if I am being repetitive, but diet anything is bad for you in general. Here is a few links to articles which are supported by a lot of scientific data that artificial sweeteners contribute to obesity and diabetes because they are unable to deliver the message to your brain you should be full. They also create a desire to have more sugary foods because your body is trained by these sweeteners to want sweet things. Artificial sweeteners are 150-7000 times more "sweet" then sugar. Also high fructose corn syrup is similarly bad because of the inability of our body to respond to fructose in the same way it does glucose.

Artificial Sweeteners
Summary of points artificial sweeteners are linked to weight gain
By making unsweetened foods less attractive and increasing appetite, they ultimately lead to greater calorie intake
People who drink more diet drinks are at higher risk for obesity, & metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure and insulin resistance).
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/89/1/1.abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080210183902.htm

High fructose corn syrup
http://www.scq.ubc.ca/our-sweet-ending-health-consequences-with-high-fructose-corn-syrup-consumption/

Sugar
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/its-the-sugar-folks/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130228\&_r=0

Something to keep an eye out for
http://news.msn.com/us/splenda-goes-from-safe-to-caution-after-leukemia-found-in-mice

While the first 3 are legit studies. "links" aren't causes, but for some they should be aware of calorie intake regardless of diet soda or regular soda. Let's face it, it's not the diet soda making people fat on it's calorie count................it's people over consuming other stuff. And most people have done it on their own without the help of diet soda. That's why they're here.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

ninerbuff

I wrote a long research paper on aspartame (the artificial sweetener in diet stuff) when I was in college several years ago. That stuff is scary. It turns into formaldehyde in your body and stays there, it isnt flushed out easily. It's been linked to depression recently, also, I believe....

Did you also write that is happens with citrus fruits? And yes formaldehyde is easily flushed from the body and we encounter it everyday giving the perception that it's not.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Mustang_Susie

All diet soda's are generally HIGH in sodium, which in turn makes you retain fluid, which keeps you from dropping the pounds more quickly. I have gone to unsweetened ice tea.

They are NOT high in sodium. 40 mg for a can is not a lot.

This

kellykw

So I'm not sure if anyone has said this or not (if so, ignore me) but the main reason diet soda=fat is that you're brain can't tell the difference between artificial and natural sugars. When you consume something sweet, your body immediately jumps into compensation mode. Tastes like a sugar? Time to release insulin! But without the control mechanism of sugar actually rising and falling. So you get the side effects of sugar drinks along with all of the negatives of ingesting chemicals. Best to just leave it alone or splurge on a real sugar Coke everyone once in a while.

I would love to see the science backing this up . . . please.

Mustang_Susie

Diet drinks are the worst thing in the world for you if you are trying to lose weight. So are fruit juices from concentrate. The juices have a ton of sugar that will put pounds on you, and the diet drinks have aspartame, the fake sugar that will actually inhibit weight loss. Equal, sweet and low, splenda...all bad for you. I hear that stevia is a good sweetener, and I make my iced tea with it sometimes. Drink lots of water or make your own juice with a juicer. IF you simply cannot stand the taste of water, I suggest the mio liquid flavoring that you can squirt into water. It is aspartame free.

Sugar will not "put pounds on you" unless you are overall consuming more calories than your TDEE for the day. Simple. A calorie deficit with higher amounts of sugar won't cause you to gain. Sweeteners have yet to be proven to be bad for you (unless you're a rat that drinks 24 cans of diet pop a day).

Diet drinks can be a great addition to any healthy diet.

I drink a can of Diet Coke every day.

I have lost 15 pounds over the past six months by eating at a healthy deficit.

I am below my original goal weight and at the low end of my BMI.

Diet Coke has had NO impact on my weight.

Mustang_Susie

So I'm not sure if anyone has said this or not (if so, ignore me) but the main reason diet soda=fat is that you're brain can't tell the difference between artificial and natural sugars. When you consume something sweet, your body immediately jumps into compensation mode. Tastes like a sugar? Time to release insulin! But without the control mechanism of sugar actually rising and falling. So you get the side effects of sugar drinks along with all of the negatives of ingesting chemicals. Best to just leave it alone or splurge on a real sugar Coke everyone once in a while.

Wrong.
I have been a nurse caring for diabetics for 25+ years.
Their blood sugar significantly increases with the consumption of concentrated sweets- cake, cookies, candy etc.
Their blood sugar does not significantly increase (in general, unless they are "brittle") by consuming complex carbohydrates and limited amounts of "natural" sugars that are found in fruit etc.
Artificial sweeteners do not signal the body to release insulin.
If it did, there would be a lot of diet soda drinkers lying on the floor begging for a piece of candy.

bagge72

Diet drinks are the worst thing in the world for you if you are trying to lose weight. So are fruit juices from concentrate. The juices have a ton of sugar that will put pounds on you, and the diet drinks have aspartame, the fake sugar that will actually inhibit weight loss. Equal, sweet and low, splenda...all bad for you. I hear that stevia is a good sweetener, and I make my iced tea with it sometimes. Drink lots of water or make your own juice with a juicer. IF you simply cannot stand the taste of water, I suggest the mio liquid flavoring that you can squirt into water. It is aspartame free.

So in the same paragraph you tell people that fake sugar will inhbit weight loss, and splenda is bad for you, but then tell somebody they should use Mio which uses sucralose which is splenda? Either way pretty much everything you said has no basis to it.

cbendorf13

[/quote]While the first 3 are legit studies. "links" aren't causes, but for some they should be aware of calorie intake regardless of diet soda or regular soda. Let's face it, it's not the diet soda making people fat on it's calorie count................it's people over consuming other stuff. And most people have done it on their own without the help of diet soda. That's why they're here.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
[/quote]

By links I meant electronic links to pages - for clarification. Also I never said links were causes - sorry your statement is confusing to me. Lastly I should have said correlation so that causation was not implied. Much of the data is strong evidence for causation but scientific causation is difficult to prove. There is certainly numerous scientific studies identifying a correlation.

mccbabe1

The research varies but some finds that artificial sweeteners can increase appetite. I know that when I drink a Diet Coke I sometimes end up wanting to open the fridge and inhale whatever is available, especially carbs. So, I've cut way back on it. I used to drink 2 to 3 cans a day and now do a 2 to 3 cans a week.

Substitutes? Two main ones. Unsweetened flavored seltzer water or unsweetened iced tea made from tea bags alone.

So, jillianbeeee, the research backs you up. For some of us, Diet Coke causes carb cravings.

^^^^^ agreee here! .. i never drink diet though.. for one I think its NASTY.. for two i'd rather burn off the calories and have a regular that is at least regular sugar vs fake artificial aspartame... and by the way.. perty grose but aspartame at 90 degrees and hotter turns into fermaldahyde! (embalming dead peeps) so ya im cool

RoyBeck

I allow myself ONE can of Pepsi a week followed by ONE can of diet the next usually on a weekend as one of my treats. Nothing wrong with that IMO.